I must not have been paying much attention to the music scene in 1992. Usually I’m aware of the artists making a critical splash, even if I haven’t heard their music. But many of the acts dominating critics lists that year are completely new to me.

Take The Orb, a British electronic music band, whose album U.F. Orb showed up on many top ten lists from the year. I had no idea this band even existed. But they’ve released 15 albums since 1991, including this sophomore release that truly impressed critics.

Of course, even if I had known about The Orb, I never would have bought this album. I haven’t even been able to make it through any of the clips on YouTube, which are made up of ambient noise and, I don’t know, whale songs? This is the sort of thing that plays in the background at a spa. Not my cup of tea.

Today’s SOTD, ‘Blue Room,’ is a 17-minute condensed version of a single that ran nearly 40 minutes. According to Wikipedia, it’s the longest single ever to land on the UK charts. The Wikipedia entry on this song also says that The Orb appeared on ‘Top of the Pops’ to perform the track but instead sat on the stage and played chess.

That was probably more interesting than the song.